How we restore power

When the power goes out, we assess the total damage and work to restore it.

In major storms, some areas may be inaccessible to our crews due to ice, fallen trees, floods, or other safety issues. That could mean some customers have to wait longer for power to be restored while we work to clear these areas.

To ensure public safety, we locate downed power lines, secure the site, and turn the power off.

Always assume that downed power lines are energized and dangerous, even if they look like they're no longer connected to the pole. Stay away from them.

If possible, we will restore electrical service to the affected customers by routing supply around the outage area.

Transmission lines and substations are the first to be restored. Transmission lines are the major lines that supply power from the source to large geographic areas (cities and towns). They run into substations where their high voltages are reduced and sent out to customers via distribution lines.

High priority is given to restoring service to essential facilities, including hospitals, police, fire and rescue, communication facilities, and water pumping stations.

Our next priority is to get the largest number of customers' power back on as quickly as possible. We concentrate on neighbourhoods, businesses, industrial, and agricultural facilities.

Then we restore service to small groups of customers and single residences.

Outage Restoration – Altona area

In July 2016, a major windstorm near Altona, Manitoba took down trees, grain bins, and wreaked havoc on power in the area. Here's how our crew responded.